Rob Lowe as KFC’s Colonel Sanders Is Just His ‘Grinder’ Character Trolling Us, Right?

Rob Lowe dressed up like Colonel Sanders today, and that just makes us miss “The Grinder” even more.

The Emmy-nominated actor is the latest star to appear as the KFC founder in a series of ads, this time donning a space suit with a trompe l’oiel design to mimic the Sanders’ signature white suit and string tie. It’s a bizarre but not entirely un-funny ad that embraces the over-the-top aspect of the announcement that Colonel Harland Sanders (Lowe) want to blast KFC’s newest Zinger sandwich into space.

“The time has come to explore beyond our known horizons, to push KFC’s spicy crispy chicken to new heights,” he says in a mock press conference in the ad seen below. The short video also concludes with the somewhat disturbing and grammatically incorrect line, “We lick our fingers good!”

Lowe’s got to be trolling us, right?

After “The Grinder” introduced us to Lowe as the clueless charmer Dean Sanderson — Sanderson, Sanders, we’re can’t be the only ones to see this — we’ve been hoping to see the character again somewhere once the show was canceled. Yes, we know we’re grasping at straws here, but we really do lament “The Grinder” ending. On the short-lived Fox comedy, Lowe’s Sanderson was a charismatic actor who played a TV lawyer who, after his show ended, decided he knew a thing or two about being a real lawyer. Doesn’t this sound like a guy who would dress up as a Southern gentleman who wants to bring his poultry empire to space?

To further perpetuate the deception, Lowe said in a statement on Friday, “My grandfather was the head of the Ohio chapter of the National Restaurant Association in the 1960s and took me to meet Colonel Harland Sanders when I was a kid. It was a big deal. I thought this would be a nice homage to both Colonel Sanders and to my grandfather. Plus, we’re sending the Zinger chicken sandwich to space. You kind of can’t beat that.”

Tell us another, Rob Lowe.

In the very least, playing the chicken-obsessed colonel allows Lowe to exercise his comedic chops. After “The Grinder,” he went over to CBS’ “Code Black” to play Colonel (another colonel!) David Willis and then filmed a reality supernatural investigation series with his sons over the summer.

Lowe is the latest actor to don the white suit. KFC started a series of new ads in 2015 that rotated actors into the role of Colonel. The illustrious list included Norm Macdonald, Jim Gaffigan, George Hamilton and Rob Riggle.